Life of Pi

A young man who survives a disaster at sea is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an unexpected connection with another survivor … a fearsome Bengal tiger.

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Life of Pi is an awe inspiring story about a young man who, after a shipwreck, has to fight for his survival. The story begins with adult Pi explaining how he got his name. Piscine Molitor Patel was named so on request of his uncle (Mamaji) who had a passion for swimming pools and the Piscine Molitor in Paris was the most beautiful swimming pool that he had ever seen. However, when Piscine went to school his name soon got changed to a taunting ‘pissing’. At the start of the next year, Piscine decided to shorten his name to the mathematical letter Pi (∏). He insures he will only be named Pi by writing all the numbers on the chalkboard (yes, all the decimal points to pi). After that, he became a legend at school and would only be named Pi after that.

Pi is a Indian boy, with a fascination for religion. He is raised to be a Hindu but at the age of fourteen he learns about Christianity and the Islam and decides to follow all three faiths. When he is asked why, he answers that he just wants to love God and understand Him better.

Pi’s father is a successful businessman who runs a Zoo. But when financial struggle hits, Pi’s father decides to move to Canada and sell the animals in hope of a better future. Somewhere in the pacific ocean however, disaster strikes when the freighter Pi and his family are on, sinks in a terrible storm. Pi manages to make it out on a lifeboat but he soon discovers that he is not alone on there. He shares his boat with a zebra, a hyena, a orangutan and later he discovers, even a great Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

Pi tries to stay alive among the animals. Soon, the hyena kills the zebra and later, to Pi’s horror, he also kills the orangutan. Then, when the hyena tries to kill Pi, Richard Parker jumps out from under the tarpaulin and kills the hyena. Pi, who is terrified, fashions a makeshift raft and attaches it to the lifeboat. This is how he stays alive for the 227 days while he is adrift on the pacific ocean.

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There’s really only word to describe this movie: beautiful.

When you watch this movie, the first thing that stands out is the cinematography. This movie is obviously meant to be in 3D, I don’t think you can watch it any way else. With help of 3D image, the most beautiful scenes come to life. I have never seen anything like it. It’s truly indescribable, so I’m not going to try. Here are a couple of pictures though:

Now, don’t get me wrong; Life of Pi is not a cute story about a boy who gets stuck on a boat with a tiger and they become best friends. The reality of living with a tiger is very much intact. No, Life of Pi is very much about spirituality and faith. Basically, the whole movie is a representation of how religion works. When I went to the cinema to see this movie yesterday, there were quite a few little kids in the audience. I think the parents had wrongly assumed that it was some kind of kid movie. It is definitely not.

All in all is it a stunning movie with cutting edge CGI like you’ve never seen before. I haven’t read the book but I’ve heard that it’s a very good representation. You simply have to have seen this movie. When you see this movie, be patient. It’s not all action and dramatics, even though that is a (big) part of it. In this movie, philosophy and psychology play a big part. You have to look beyond what you see on the screen to understand what it really is about. If you to that, you will really enjoy it. If you don’t, you may end up like the young man I overheard leaving the cinema. He said ‘That Life of Pi movie.. it’s kinda weird, isn’t it?’. No, it’s not weird, you just didn’t get it.

If you have seen it, please answer me this; which story was the true one? The first or the second?